My Viet Nam
by Shalan the Magnificent
Summary: AU He had grown up down the street from her… and during their younger years they played together. In middle school they hated each other. In high school they loved each other. In the war they lost each other. And now they found each other. IchiRuki
1. Viet Nam Rain

**Title: **My Vietnam

**Summary: **AU Letters are the only thing you have to connect yourself to the outside world, the alternate universe to Viet Nam. And they wanted to bring home to them. IchiRuki

**Shalan's Say: **XDDD I KNOW ANOTHER STORY! OMG OMG OMG OMG! I hope you guys like this one… and I hope you like blood… gore… and sex… all in one… YAY! THROW A PARTY!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach… but I do own… my beta… she's my pet and I keep her on a leash… and Byakuya is on the same leash… you do not want to know where that leads… XD punny

**WARNING: **EXPLICIT LANGUAGE! This is your first and last warning… this story will be filled with gore and plenty of language… please if you don't like bad language then don't read this story…

**Chapter: **Viet Nam Rain

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"It smells like rotten fish…" He complained. The man next to him grumbled in his sleep.

"Close your legs then…" The other replied.

"I'M NOT A DAME!" Uryu hit his partner upside the head with his rucksack.

"FUCK!" Ichigo sat up. "You know how fuckin' heavy that is?" Ichigo punched his best friend. A pair of hands knocked their heads together so hard they saw stars.

"Shut the fuckin' hell up…" The leader of their division stood over them. Byakuya Kuchiki stood above the two lieutenants with a deadly glare. "You wanna fuckin' give us away…"

"Yeah… shut up damn it…" Ichigo cursed and rolled back over. Ichigo Kurosaki was a tall, broad shouldered infantryman with powerful muscles that the other men in the squad swore that he could crush bone. His bright orange hair was buzzed down near the scalp normally but had now grown out to spike in several directions off his skull. His body was deeply bush tanned, looking as damn near black as was possible. His hands were broad and powerful, rough and calloused like leather. But it was his eyes that set him apart. His eyes were not those of a killer, instead they were soft and kind, a gentle amber like rolling wheat in the summertime.

"Fine…" The other grouched and threw himself back down. Uryu Ishida was thinner than his best friend but was none the less powerful. His skin was slightly lighter than Ichigo's as he tended to stay in the shade more often. His brilliant blue eyes were set into his head beneath black hair which was buzz cut the same as his best friend's. His fingers were long and mighty, dirt was embedded beneath his nails, all the muck and grime from Viet Nam.

The next morning Ichigo grumbled something about damn leeches as he burnt one off his arm with a cigarette before putting it in his mouth. "What?" Uryu asked after another sleepless night. Ichigo looked over at him.

"Fuckin' leeches… keep gettin' on me…" Ichigo growled through the cigarette. "Gotta hump back to base today… fuckin' Charlie…" he cursed and stood up, his combat boots sinking into the muck that he had been sleeping in.

"You are just in a terrible mood today aren't you Striker…" A man stood up, dusting himself off. He was a German by birth but an American by nature. Kisuke Urahara or Kurz as he was called stood nearby, a cigarette in his fingers as he stood. He was tall and blonde with pristine blue eyes. Hitler would have loved him.

"Shut it Kurz, we're not gonna make it fuckin' back in time for chow anyways…" Ichigo grumbled and heaved his rucksack onto his back. "And I wanted some hot food…" He grouched again.

"Boy you oughta be spanked…" A good natured chuckle came from a little ways away. Sitting on his rucksack was a bight eyed red head with a cigarette in his hand as well.

"Ya'll're fuckin' chimneys…" Uryu frowned at them all. The red head grinned over at him.

"Fuck that ma' if I'm gonna die out here I'm gonna get all the fuckin' enjoyment I can…" Renji Abarai, Red as he was called, pointed out.

"Alright enough of a break… get up and let's go…" Byakuya shouted at them.

"Aye, aye sir!" Uryu quipped as several other members pulled their rucksacks on.

"Shut your fuckin' mouth Ishida…" Byakuya scolded. Uryu made a face and mocked him behind his back while Ichigo chuckled.

"Alright… let's march…" Kiske sing-sang as he fell into line. Ichigo stomped out his cigarette with indignation and walked off after the others, falling into step.

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By the time they got back to base, late for chow as Ichigo had predicted, Uryu nearly lept with joy. He was just waiting to see if his girl back in the States had sent him a letter. "Hey Coop!" He swung into the post room later that evening after all of the men had been given a few days off to recooperate. He had taken a shower and cleaned up, putting on the cleanest fatigues he could find before entering the post.

"Yo! Lieu-Uryu…" The post master grinned. "Sorry…" Uryu shook his head. "I ain't got no mail for you son… sorry…" Uryu sighed and turned around, walking out into the compound. He felt the hot wind settle in for a rain storm and he looked up. Damn leeches would multiply now. He felt in his shirt and pulled out an old picture from two years before. It was a picture of his girlfriend back in the States. She was beautiful and 17 in the picture. Now she was beautiful and going on 20. She was sitting on the grass, her shining red hair cascading over her shoulder, her hands behind her, supporting her body. He smiled lightly and sighed. She hadn't written in nearly a year… and he was losing hope. Maybe she had found another man…

"A picture may last longer but why stare at that when you can look at the real thing?" He heard a voice from behind him. His heart stopped, there was no way. As the rain began he turned around to see her standing there, beautiful red hair cascading around her shoulders.

"Ka-Kazumi?" He choked out just before their lips met. His arms were so tight around her waist that she could have sworn that he was trying to mold her body into his. It wasn't awkward, after two years of not seeing each other it was the same, they could act as if they had just seen each other the day before. Her lips tasted so good. He gripped the sides of her head as water rushed around their ankles in the Viet Nam rain.

"Your hands are so rough…" She gripped his hand in hers, pressing the warm flesh to her cheek. She hadn't touched him in two years, she hadn't seen him or smelt him or tasted him. "They were soft the last time I saw you…" Her icy blue eyes were soft, water dripping down her face… or were those tears?

"I know…" He picked her up and carried her up into his hooch. She pulled him up close to her and buried her nose deep into his neck and shoulder. She breathed in a familiar scent as well as one that she didn't know. It was the scent of blood and muck, of dirt and carnage… the scent of Viet Nam. But beneath that was the homely scent that she associated with him body, the taste she knew was his. Her mouth sucked lightly at his neck, her hands gripping his fatigue shirt. His fingers dragged through her wet hair, before he ducked his head to meet her lips. He had to taste her again, he forced his tongue into her mouth, desperately trying to keep what he believed was a dream, a reality.

"Uryu…" Her voice sounded muffled. He looked down and she was still there in his arms. Her big blue eyes looked up at him. "Slow down… we have all the time in the world…" her soft hands cradled his face.

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Ichigo stared out over the compound, a cigarette the only light around him. The dim light from the burning tobacco lit his eyes slightly, giving them a dark and mysterious look as he watched the rain fall. But of course, this wasn't any old rain. It was Viet Nam rain and it held a special quality about it.

Viet Nam rain had a special scent. It smelled light flowers, freshly cut grass and everything that is associated with a summer rain… but it also smelled light the red clay that covered their fatigues and boots, it smelled like blood. Fresh hot wet blood glistening on the bodies of dead men, be they Viet Cong or US soldiers. Blood.

The rain even took on a special color, because when it would hit the ground and turn the red clay to mud… the mud ran red… like blood. He flicked his cigarette into the water and lit another, it calmed him, like a tranquilizer it made him believe that he wasn't in a war zone where he could die at any second… it made him believe that this rain was cleansing instead of putrid.

The rain in Viet Nam wasn't peaceful or calming like the rain in the States… no… it was like a rushing river of anger. It fell with a vengeance as if you poison the earth and rid itself of the creatures below it. It was a waterfall that tumbled from the sky with a point, with a target, with a rigid ferocity that no one wanted to mess with. It was the god of the land, it decided what stayed and what went. It was the king of Viet Nam.

"You look so thoughtful… that's not my Ichigo I remember…" he heard a soft voice from beside him. A petite brunette wearing a pristine set of nurse's fatigues stood next to him. His eyes couldn't believe what they were transmitting to his brain and his brain didn't believe it either…

"Rukia…" He choked out, dry mouthed. He flicked the cigarette into the rushing water and swung the woman into his arms, swinging her in a circle before pulling her back in and kissing her so hard she thought her head would spin. He wanted to kiss her so hard she would become a part of him.

He wanted to crush her body to his and hold her there until neither were breathing. He wanted to push her away and stare at her. He wanted to love her until he was sick. He wanted to hate her until the end of time. He wanted her to burst into flame like a beautiful phoenix. He wanted her to be his burning passion. He wanted to be her burning passion. He was so in love with her that he couldn't speak, much less think. All he could do was kiss her, so hard that she thought her head would spin.

He wanted to drag his fingers through her hair. He wanted to pull on her hair until he was satisfied. He wanted to die for her. He wanted to live for her too. He wanted every single heartbeat he had in this life to be hers… and his.

"How did you get here?" He searched her eyes but wouldn't let her answer. He just kissed her again. He had never kissed her like that before. He had always been timid and let her lead their kiss. Now he was possessive and demanding. He wanted her, and he wanted everything about her. He wanted to ingrain her scent, her taste, her feel, her everything into his head. He wanted to make her his. He wanted… that was it. He just wanted.

She was breathless, flushed, excited. He had never excited her before, not like this. He had never lit a fire that started between her thighs and made its burning path through her insides to her heart, closing it down. She wanted his hands, frenzied and rough, on her body. She wanted him. She had never experienced the same want before. She had wanted things in the past. But the want to feel him inside of her, to feel his naked body, to feel his life was so much more powerful than any want she had ever had.

Her hands were desperate, holding him just as close to her as he was holding her to him. She wanted his body, his mind, his soul. She wanted to hold him, to touch him, to kiss him until the pain of this war was gone. She wanted to do things she had never thought possible. She wanted to love him until it became pain on the threshold of pleasure instead of pleasure on the threshold of pain.

Neither breathed. Neither moved, neither wanted to move. They just stood there, in the Viet Nam rain.

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You all will understand what the girls are doing there and what their histories are here soon… in the second chapter so until then have fun guessing… read and review please.

Shalan


	2. Viet Nam Air

**Chapter: **Viet Nam Air

**Shalan's Note: **Hey guys… OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS! Anyways… I know you reviewed me but I have a short memory span so thank you whoever it was that said the rain sounded like the rain you remembered. I try. My father is a Nam vet so I get a lot of my information from him… but the rain was only in my imagination… I just put myself into a soldier's shoes and tried to imagine what the rain would smell like.

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Ichigo sighed softly as he sat up in the soft cot that was in the hospital wing. He looked over at The woman sleeping next to him and cocked an eyebrow. She was curled on his chest, her head resting on his heart. One hand was placed against his muscled abdomen while the other was curled near her head. He knew she hadn't slept that night. She wasn't used to Viet Nam yet.

She hadn't spent the sleepless nights listening to the restless earth that was Viet Nam. She hadn't heard the ghouls from the muck rise up against the winds whipping through the trees. She hadn't smelt the hot and heavy air of Viet Nam jungles.

Her tired eyes opened as he lit a cigarette. Her hand slid down the muscled area of his chest and abdomen lightly. "It's so loud here…" she said softly and he nodded. The silence in the area was deafening. So much so that your brain would try to fill the silence with noise.

Ichigo didn't speak, he tried not to break the spell that her voice had on him. She rested her cheek against his breast lightly then scrunched her nose as his dog tags pressed against her temple. She moved them over before replacing her head. He watched her with a light smile on his face. She was so peculiar.

"Ichigo… you aren't talking…" She whispered before looking up at him. He smiled again. He was content to sit there with her for the rest of his life.

"Yeah… I was waiting for you to talk again…" He looked down, their eyes meeting. High school sweethearts. They knew each other inside and out. He had grown up down the street from her… and during their younger years they played together. In middle school they hated each other. In high school they loved each other. In the war they had lost each other. And now they had found each other.

"You haven't said a word…" Her eyes searched his. Indigo melded with amber.

"I've got nothing to say," he shrugged as he drew on the cigarette again. She closed her eyes again and listened to his heartbeat.

"You have everything to say… and I already know what you have to say…" she smiled and kissed a scar on his chest tenderly. He used his free hand to brush her hair back from her face as she kissed his neck.

"That's good… I don't want to talk… I just want to listen…" He whispered and buried his nose into her hair. She closed her eyes and listened, like he told her. And there it was again, the steady thrumming of his heart. She steadied her breathing to match his and suddenly they were one being. He stubbed out his cigarette and rested his other arm across his own body, leaving a hand on her cheek. It had been too long since he had held her this close.

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His body told him that it was warm and fuzzy, happy, it said. He smiled, letting his nose brush her cheek. Her hand brushed the side of his face, pressing their bodies so close together that they were symmetrical. "You remember where we met?" Kazumi asked softly.

"Pie In The Sky… downtown Boston." He replied, opening an eye. She nodded.

"I was a waitress there…" Her face lit up. "And you'd come in everyday to see me…"

"Or maybe I just came in for the pizza…" He teased she slapped his arm playfully. He had built up much more muscle than before. She had noticed that his stomach was slightly sunken in.

"You look like you could use a pizza…" Her hand graced the hard muscles of his stomach. The six pack abdominal muscles were verging on an eight pack down onto his navel. His powerful arm muscles flexed lightly as he shifted. He was happy that they had decided to stay in the cement infirmary of the compound. This meant that he got to sleep in a regular bed without the worry of bugs or water seeping in.

"Yeah… right about now…" He smiled softly.

"You're all leathery and hard… like a rock…" she slapped his stomach teasingly.

"I asked you to be my girl… so I could write to you…" He smiled. She nodded as their lips met tenderly. He smiled down at her.

"Then I said yes… and you made love to me that night…" She grinned.

"I wanted to know what your body tasted like… So I could come over here and say, hey I've gotta dame of my own…" Uryu smiled. He then stood up and dressed himself, yanking his white t-shirt over his head and shoulders. He pulled his green fatigue shirt on and then walked outside. Her eyes grew sad. She knew he was trying to distance himself from her.

He took in a deep breath of the wet, rotten air of Viet Nam. It coated his nostrils like smoke, filling his lungs like a toxic poison. It smelled like earth, tasted like blood and felt like pea soup. He rubbed his head with his hand, his hair was getting a little long.

"Ishida." Byakuya nodded to him as he walked by. The tired lieutenant nodded to him and went back to staring out over the compound.

"Viet Nam smells like death…" Kazumi said softly as her arm hooked through his. He looked down at her.

"That's what I was just thinking…" He looked beyond the wall shielding the compound and focused on a tree in the distance. The air smelled like bloodshed, like rotting flesh. It was heavy and hot, damp like sitting in a steamy bathroom for too long.

"You won't have to smell that for too much longer…" She smiled softly and he looked over at her.

"What do you mean?" He breathed again. This time he took in the smell of coffee rinds and rotten fruit.

"I mean… you're being relieved. In October…" Her eyes were lit. "And I'm going with you…"

"What about Ichigo?"

"You're going to Okinawa… all of you… the entire platoon." Kazumi smiled at him.

"We're going to Japan?" He looked as though he couldn't believe it. She nodded. His hands gripped her and he swung her around, before squeezing her up against his body. "Jesus Kazumi why'd you wait so long to tell me?"

"But I'm leaving before you… we were just here on a resupply mission… but Rukia and I'll be waiting…" Uryu smiled down at her. Just the fact that they were leaving that hellhole was enough for him. And the fact that she was there. Uryu kissed her, pressing his lips to hers, trying to breath in some of her beautiful scent, trying to be worth of her love… trying to make her proud of him.

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"So we're going to Okinawa huh?" Byakuya leaned back in his chair in the conference room. Renji sat on one side of him while Kisuke sat on the other. Ichigo and Uryu, sitting next to each other smiled. They knew. They knew they were getting out of that damn hell hole.

"Yeah it would seem so…" Kisuke looked at the registered letter.

"So how are your girls?" Renji grinned. He had grown up with Ichigo and Rukia down the street, and he was just as close to her as Ichigo…

"Good…" Uryu grinned.

"You look like the fuckin' cat who ate the fuckin' canary…" Byakuya told him from across the room.

"He ate something last night but I don't think it was a canary…" The men at the table snorted. Uryu frowned and set his feet up.

"No, I fucked my girlfriend, and that's a whole hell of a lot more than you're getting." Uryu ran his fist up and down in the air. Byakuya opened his mouth to reply but Uryu stood up, a catty grin on his face and walked out. Ichigo, Renji and Kisuke snorted into their coffee mugs.

"Shut up you three…" Byakuya stalked out and Ichigo stood. He couldn't wait until he got into Okinawa to see Rukia again.

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"This damn rain won't stop!" Uryu grouched from the front of the line. The others laughed. It was two weeks until their departure, two weeks since he had seen his girl and two weeks of nonstop rain. Viet Nam was water logged. And it was disgusting.

"Get over yourself Ishida…" Another shouted from the back. Ichigo sniggered.

"Fuck you!" Uryu shouted in reply and Byakuya made a noise in his throat that meant for them to shut up as the gates to the compound opened.

"Yeah shaddap Ishida!" Came another call from the back and Ichigo patted his best friend on the shoulder with a grin. As they marched out in silence the Viet Nam air seemed to close in around them and devour them before they could even think.

Ichigo tried to breathe; the air was full of blood and smoke. The scent of a battle was nearby. Ichigo could feel it. The air was filled with haunting moans and images of death. For all they knew… the air around them was blood red.

It was stifling, traveling in the dark with that disgusting air all around. Blood and dirt and wet warm wood was what the boys were breathing in. And the scent of the Viet Cong. They could smell them. They could sense them. They were all around them. In the trees in the ground in the air… even in their heads… they were everywhere they didn't want them.

Several of the men carried gas masks in case they were gassed but that wouldn't help against the deathly hollows that they were walking through at the moment. Ichigo cocked his gun upwards and kept a sharp eye on the trees, waiting for any sign of movement that wasn't from the rain or from an animal.

Uryu held his breath, just waiting for the gunfire to start. He just waited. He wasn't sure when it was going to happen but he was sure that it was. The air, so filled with blood, drowned their lungs in an array of poisons. Napalm and agent orange filled the air, or at least, the scent of them lingered. The it happened. A bullet flew out from the trees and hit his best friend in the thigh. Ichigo took it and swung his gun over and shot the shooter. That was it.

"GET DOWN!" Byakuya's voice sounded an the group hit the mud. The gunfire sounded and Ichigo growled and fired back as the medic worked on his leg. He was going to kill someone for this. The gunfire was relentless, blood splattered from all sides, warm, hot blood that filled their senses in the rain.

Uryu's blood smattered face was not covered in his own blood. The steamy blood that dripped from her cheek was a Viet Cong guerilla's a man that he had shot with his handgun from about two inches away. He looked down at the dead man. Killing people wasn't his choice, it was just a way of life for them.

"Ichigo!" Uryu ran over as he was lifted up by Renji and another man in the platoon. The carrot-top gave him a thumbs up. His leg was tied tightly with a tourniquet.

"Hey man… I'm going to Okinawa before you are…" he grimaced as blood soaked his fatigue pants. The blood was shiny and thick, pulsing down his legs in short bursts. Uryu nearly gagged. His stomach turned as he looked at his best friend. The gash on Ichigo's left cheek was streaming blood down his cheek and neck, but they weren't worried about that, they were worried about the bullet wound in his thigh. Ichigo was sweating, profusely and again his screams rang in Uryu's ears.

He had never heard his best friend scream like that before. He had never smelt his best friend's blood before. He had never thought about his best friend getting hurt before. He had always assumed that Ichigo would be there right beside him though everything. He felt warm liquid and pressed his hand against his temple. When he drew it away he opened his mouth to scream only to have a hand clap over his mouth. Blood was streaming down his face and neck, his own blood this time.

Shock set in, his body hummed, he screamed, muffled by the hand now but it happened and the shock that his body went into made his entire physique contort. His eyes widened, his heart pumped, his brain whirred. He fell into a blank space where nothing existed other than himself. And he was screaming in a vacuum.

Ichigo stumbled forward. "Stupid ass medic! He's going into shock, let him go!" The soldier slammed the stock of his gun into the medic's head and knocked him away just to get to Uryu. "Damn it! Call a duster!" Ichigo commanded the radio operator. He nodded and began speaking. Ichigo patted Uryu's cheek. "C'mon man… fuck c'mon don't die on me…" Ichigo pleaded with him.

There was nothing, just darkness, his body had stepped into the threshold of pain. Stepped past the threshold of insanity and into the threshold of death. Ichigo's voice was a mere echo in his head. His body ceased to function.

"_Get him on the chopper…"_ It sounded ghostly, far away, as if in a dream. "_Move!_" Ichigo growled. It sounded as though it were from a different sound entirely, but there is was, still lingering in his lungs, the Viet Nam air, now filled with his blood and his best friend's blood… filled with the blood of a million men… the blood of the human race… Viet Nam air.

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Done… what'd you think? The next chapter should come soon… after all I do have Monday off too… so I'll get some more chapters posted. Please read and review…

Shalan


	3. Okinawa Monsoons

**Chapter: **Okinawa Monsoons

**Shalan's Say: **Okay… I wanna say something… I LOVE YOU ALL! YOU REVIEW ME AND I WUV YOU FOR IT… TANKS BERY BUCH!

**WARNING: **ADULT CONTENT… kinda commonplace in my stories huh XDDDD

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Rukia hummed lightly as she walked through the halls of the hospital. Men were laying in their beds, some missing arms, legs and sometimes even eyes… there was no end to the hundreds of patients. One man whispered something and she turned.

"Ma'am…" she walked over to him and he smiled lightly. He was an older man, maybe in his fourties, and he was missing his right arm.

"Yessir… is there something I can get you?" His left eye was missing as well, it was covered with a bandage tightly. His head nodded slowly.

"A glass of water would be nice… I'm sorry to bother you like this…" he tilted his head lightly.

"It's alright, that's what I'm here for…" The petite woman grinned. "I'll be right back." That was what they were there for. They were there to serve the men who were serving them. Water lashed against the windows to the cement compound as Rukia walked. She smiled as she thought of a joke. They could just hold a glass outside the door to the compound and get some water…

"What are you smiling about?" She heard a voice as she walked over to the water purifier.

"Ichigo…" her eyes dimmed as he rolled himself out from the shadows. He had been sitting there looking out the window as the winds and water slammed themselves into the earth.

"Getting some water for a friend?" He smiled lightly as she felt her body tense lightly. "Or coming to see me?"

"I was doing a vet a favor…" she hissed back.

"Ooch… that smarts… hurts like a bullet wound…" she wanted to slap herself. She had just been an ass to her boyfriend, the man that was sitting in a wheelchair from taking a bullet in the leg. She blushed out of embarrassment and turned to fill the glass with water.

"I'll be right back…"she walked off and Ichigo stared after her and smiled. She was so hot headed.

Sex. It was something beyond words, his lips coated her neck with kisses that seared on her skin and sent her flying through never never land. It was illegal… against regulations for them to be together. It was against regulations for his body to touch hers. But it felt so damn good that neither paid any attention to the rules that bound them.

It was wrong. The feeling of his calloused hands on her skin, his aggressive touches. The scent of his body. The taste of his mouth. Everything about it was wrong. The air around them was filled with musk. The dark scent that their bodies expelled. The scent of lust, of sex.

His breaths were a blessing, just hearing the groans from his mouth made her thankful. His heartbeat was a grace of god, knowing that hers beat in time with his made her breathing hitch. His body was a sin, no man should be as beautiful as he was.

She filled his senses, and for a moment he forgot that he was a soldier in the army during Viet Nam. For a moment he was flying out the United States, looking out the window of an airplane, Rukia sitting next to him. For a moment… his mind went blank and all he could do was feel the woman above him. All he could do was love her… and love her was what he did. He loved her more than anything that he had ever dreamed of.

And that was all that mattered to him… was her.

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Uryu folded his arms across his chest as he watched his girlfriend talk with another vet. He wasn't jealous… just a little angry that she had been ignoring him that day. Kazumi smiled lightly at him from across the room. Uryu perked up. She wasn't ignoring him. She walked over and ran a hand along his bed until she sat next to him.

"Have you been ignoring me?" Uryu winked before she kissed him tenderly.

"Yes… you just bother me that much…" her face was angelic, lit up by the lights in the room. The monsoon that continued outside the compound thundered, the lights flickered.

"When are you going to learn?" He smiled as she sat down next to him.

"Whenever you teach me…" her eyes were half lidded. He leaned forward and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Come dancing with me tonight…" he whispered in her ear. She nodded.

"I'll meet you at the bar downtown…" she replied and walked off. Uryu was being released from the hospital that day, the gash that had been carved in the side of his head was now a scar hidden beneath his short hair.

"Got a date tonight huh?" Ichigo lifted an eyebrow as he crutched over. His wheelchair had been replaced by the sturdy metal crutches. Rukia walked behind him slowly, a secret smile on her face.

"Some monsoon out there huh?" Uryu looked out the window. Ichigo looked at Rukia over his shoulder.

"Some monsoon in here huh?" Uryu threw a pen at Ichigo. He chuckled. "Writing to your mom?" Ichigo snatched a letter from Uryu's lap.

"Don't harass the patients Ichigo…" Rukia scolded.

"He's not patient… he's a hard headed intolerant pig…" Ichigo grinned, his jaw jutted out at his best friend. Uryu scowled.

"Gimme that!" He snatched the letter back.

"Spoilsport…" Ichigo smiled. Uryu's face sunk thoughtfully. He knew then… that was the last time he would see Ichigo smile for quite some time. But he wasn't sure why that feeling rushed over him.

"Go away Kurosaki… and get a life!" Uryu shouted as Ichigo crutched off after his girlfriend.

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"Ichigo…" Rukia said softly, tracing a circle on his smooth chest, after another one of their secret meetings. He looked down at her then jumped as thunder boomed. It reminded him of a mortar hitting the ground next to him. His hands were shaking as he gripped the cigarette package and shook one out. Rukia took one of his hands as he wrapped his lips around the cigarette. "That's bad for you…" but she knew better. She wasn't going to take it away from him.

"I know dat…" he said through the tobacco stick. His hand cupped the end as he lit it. She sighed, there was no getting through to him. His nervous reaction to the sound of thunder ceased as he drew in on the cigarette.

"I'm leaving…" her voice was soft in the room as rain beat against the window.

"You're what?" He looked down at her. His bush tan was fading slightly. Two months since he had arrived there and his tan was just starting to fade.

"I'm going back state side…" she rested her head in the crook of his neck.

"Oh…" his eyes averted and he looked at a spot on the ground.

"Yes… we're being relieved. We've been here for a year after all…" she whispered again, the rain almost drowning her out. (NPI)

"I see…" the second lieutenant looked straight ahead. At 24 he had his whole life ahead of him, and his whole life was lying next to him. She kissed his neck, sucking on the tender skin.

"I'll wait for you…" she murmured into his ear. He leaned his head over and rested his chin on the top of her head. She saw the cigarette go out and he wrapped his arms around her, curling her body against his.

"I don't want you to have to wait…" He kissed her lips, her cheeks, her jaw, her neck, he kissed the tears that glowed on her cheeks. For the first time since the war had started everything rose to the top. The pain of seeing his friends die, the sickness of seeing his enemies faces and knowing that they have families too. The violence that rose up in his heart and he wanted to kill something with his bare hands, the caution that made him want to hold her close. Suddenly it all boiled over and he desperately attempted to keep his soldier's composure.

"I want you to come back to me… you hear me?" Rukia whispered and he nodded.

"When I get back state side… we'll get married…" he looked into her eyes, the fathomless cerulean eyes that hid her thoughts and made her love so obvious. The sparkling blue that he loved more than life itself… more than anything he could imagine… and he knew… he was going to return to her.

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Uryu's arms wrapped around Kazumi's waist as they kissed, for her, it was like kissing him goodbye when he had left for the war. For him it was like death itself.

"I love you angel…" he muttered as she pressed her forehead to his. She nodded, her pristine blue uniform contrasting against her baby blues.

"I love you too…" tears welled up in her eyes as she stared deep into his eyes.

"Eat and extra pie for me 'kay?" He hugged her to his chest.

"I promise… and then I'll write you a letter about how good it tasted…" she teased through her tears.

"Don't cry angel…" he rubbed her tears away with his thumbs. "I'll see you in a year or so… I promise I'll come back to you…" Uryu kissed her again.

"Rukia!" Ichigo called, looking around for her.

"ICHIGO!" He could hear her, but where was she? The crowd parted as the final boarding call went up.

"Rukia…" he hugged her, kissing her tenderly.

"Ichigo I have to tell you something…" She said hurriedly. Ichigo looked up as a man gripped her arm. The man jerked his head towards the plane.

"All people leaving for the states need to be on the plane right now…" the man said.

"ICHIGO!" Rukia called as she was dragged off. "ICHIGO I'M-P…" the jets started and Ichigo ran after her.

"WHAT?" He shouted back but Uryu caught him as Kazumi waved at them. Rukia sat down next to her and waved to get Ichigo's attention but the plane was moving.

"ICHIGO! ICHIGO!" Rukia shouted through the glass, but he couldn't hear her, and suddenly they were taking off. "I'm pregnant…" she whispered under her breath.

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YAY! I love this story… anyways… I hope you all enjoy it… it's not all about the war itself, its more about the affect it had on people who were watching it happen as well as the people who were in it… So please Read and Review

Shalan


	4. Viet Nam Prisoner

**Chapter**: Viet Nam Prisoner

**Shalan's Say: **Wow… this chapter is going to be depressing… I just thought you should know this… Ichigo… may not come home… ever… hang through to the end though 'kay? Ya'll know I'm not gonna end this story yet…

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One year. It had been a whole year since she had heard from him. After she had returned to the United States she had been honorably discharged, to have her child. The baby that slept in her arms curled up against her breast. She looked out the window, her eyes patient, her body tired. Suddenly a flash caught her eye and she stood up, placing the baby in her crib. The black car drove up and her face lit up, Ichigo had come home.

Then Uryu got out of the car, escorted by a chaplain. Suddenly her heart clenched, Ichigo wasn't coming back… She collapsed in the doorway before they could get up the steps, she fell to her knees, her hands in her face, tears pouring down her cheeks.

"Rukia…" Uryu dropped to one knee and wrapped his arms around her. She sobbed into his uniform.

"Ur-Uryu…" she pressed her face harder against his jacket, tears pouring down her face.

"He's not dead yet…" he whispered into her ear and her eyes widened as he continued. Suddenly sound returned to her world and she heard her baby screaming from inside the house. She stood up and invited the other two inside.

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Ichigo panted heavily, blood running from the numerous cuts and lesions on his face. His swollen muscles were painfully sore, his body in so much pain he wanted to scream… but he wouldn't break. He couldn't break.

"If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy." Ichigo muttered under his breath and the soldier next to him looked over, just barely able to lift his head.

His body shuddered. His body soaked in his own blood. The abuse and torture that he had been through in the past few months had shocked his system… and it was still getting used to it. The grimy areas around him, the disgusting stench of the Viet Cong. The sorry excuse for a code of conduct that they had.

Blood had caked on his ripped uniform pants, forming something of a gross scab. His mind reeled. He had to get back to the states… he couldn't break to these damn dinks.

"If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way." Ichigo muttered again as he was lifted from the hook that he was hung from. The men dragged him out of the room, his legs broken severely. He stared straight ahead, his face swollen and bruised, his shoulders as straight as pain would allow.

The man asked him a question… and instead of answering him… Ichigo continued doing the same thing he did every time… reminding himself that he was a United States soldier… and he had to protect the country he loved.

"Strong leadership and communication are essential to discipline. Discipline is the key to camp organization, resistance and even survival. Personal hygiene, camp sanitation and care of sick and wounded are imperative. Officers and non-commissioned officers of the United States must continue to carry out their responsibilities and exercise their authority in captivity. The senior, regardless of service, must accept command. This responsibility and accountability may not be evaded." Ichigo quoted, it earned him a slap from the nine-tails that was in the man's hand.

"What is your name?" The man asked in Japanese and Ichigo lifted his head.

"When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause." He jaw set. "My name is Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Rank."

"First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps." He tilted his head up proudly.

"Number."

"640283495." Ichigo replied. He knew the rule book like the back of his hand. He would only comply to certain things… and if they thought they were going to get information from him they were dead wrong.

"Age."

"25 I assume. I was born on July 15, 1940 in Tokyo, Japan." Ichigo stared straight ahead.

"Where are the leaders of your platoon located?" The man stared back.

"I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America." Ichigo continued his quotation and received another lash from the nine-tails. "And I will never forget my promise…" he closed his eyes as the lashes came again, and again. Rukia. And the calm of unconsciousness took him over.

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She stared out over the concrete street at the little kids who played happily together. They didn't understand the gravity of the situation. She looked over as the door opened. The three year old stared at her mother for a moment before running and hiding behind a wall. "Arisu?" Rukia peeked around the corner with a smile.

"When's daddy gonna be home?" Arisu asked and Rukia's eyes darkened. The little girl was too young yet… she couldn't know… not that her daddy may never be home.

"In a few days sweetie…" Rukia lied, she hated lying to her daughter… but it was necessary. Rukia squeezed her eyes shut tightly.

"Rukia!" Kazumi's voice broke through her haze. Uryu had gone back over after a year of being home. Kazumi smiled softly as Rukia looked over. The pretty red-head was standing behind the screen door to her porch.

"Hey Kazumi…"

"AUNTIE KAZUMI!" Arisu pummeled into Kazumi's legs.

"Hey big girl… how is my favorite person in the whole wide world?" Kazumi smiled, Arisu wrapped her arms around Kazumi's neck as she was lifted to her aunt's hip.

"Great! I found a lady bug today! But it flew away…" She was talkative. She was bright. She had her father's hair. The long orange locks were pulled back in a long French braid down her back. Her bangs brushed her forehead like a plume.

"You found a lady bug? Really?" Kazumi smiled as their noses touched.

"Is Uncle Uryu coming home today?" Kazumi furrowed her eyebrows.

"You know about that? Your mommy must have told you…" Rukia shook her head.

"I haven't said anything…" The brunette was secretly jealous… again… for the second time she had to watch Kazumi and Uryu kiss… she closed her eyes. She hadn't felt his touch since that year… not that she hadn't imagined it… oh god those nights alone, her windows open, letting in a muggy summer air. Those times her body had cried for him, only to realize that he wasn't there… all the times she had to hide her tears from her daughter.

"Kazumi you're wearing the clothes that you wear when you do something special… and it's not my birthday… and it's not mommy's birthday… so Uncle Uryu is coming home…" Kazumi sighed. The girl was too smart for her own good. Rukia's plain white dress reached her knees. The scoop neck of the top showed her collar bone. The short sleeves were loose around her upper arms.

"Yes, he is… now let's go before the plane gets here…" Kazumi laughed as they walked out, Rukia shut the door behind herself. Her eyes glanced around the neighborhood again. It was so peaceful, so different from the world of Viet Nam.

"Ichigo…" Rukia whispered. She had changed her name. If he wasn't there to marry him she would at least have his name. While she was still pregnant she had changed her name to Rukia Kurosaki… so that their child would have his name… so that she would have some memory of him. She brushed her daughter's hair from her face. She looked cute in her pale pink pinafore. Her eyes were dark blue, like her mother's, but her hair… Rukia smiled, oh her hair was her father's alright… there was no doubt about those orange locks.

"Mommy?" Arisu took her mother's hand and Rukia looked down with a slight gasp.

"Arisu…" She pulled her daughter into her lap as they drove off, pressing her lips to her daughter's head. "I love you…"

"I love you too mommy…" she giggled and Rukia smiled. She was so like her father.

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Rukia sighed softly as she waited, her daughter's hand in hers. She could hear Arisu's voice, saying mommy, but she held on as the three year old attempted to drag herself away from her mother in the crowd.

"Look… there's Uryu!" Kazumi smiled and Rukia looked up but what she saw made her jaw drop.

"ICHIGO!" She burst from the crowd, tears streaming down her face. His arms wrapped around her as she slammed into him. He was bruised, he was thinning, but he was still Ichigo. "Ichigo… Ichigo… Ichigo… Ichigo…" it seemed to be the only word she was physically capable of saying. "Ichigo…"

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TAA! How did they find him? How is he walking? HOW THE HELL DID THE GET HIM NOT TO STINK? I mean MAN those death chambers must smell like rotting flesh… not to be gross or anything… XDDDDDDD

Shalan


	5. American Soil

**Chapter: **American Soil

**Shalan's Say: **Hey guys… I know it's been a while since I last wrote to you guys… I just had a burst of intelligence… (it only happens every once in a while…)

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Blood bubbled out of his mouth, dripping down his chin as he trembled in the throes of death. "Hold on man… we'll get out… you'll get home and everything'll be fine…" His commanding officer held him gently in his arms. The man nodded, her eyes fading. The wound in his abdomen seeping stomach acid and blood. Ichigo looked at the other men around him, all in various states of decay. His breath came in desperate gasps, the wounds in his body taking their toll. The man in his arms suddenly relaxed and Ichigo closed his eyes.

"Striker…" A man called from the other side of the hill. "Striker…" Ichigo squeezed his eyes shut as he heard the choked voice call his name. He pressed the back of his head against the dirt of the makeshift barricade they had made. The man next to him looked over.

"Sir, isn't that Hound? Shouldn't we go get 'im?" Ichigo didn't respond to the Brooklyn man.

"Striker… LT…" He called out, blood gurgled in his throat as he called and Ichigo felt his stomach revolt against him.

"That is Hound, go get him sir!" The other repeated. The other men were in various places, lying on their stomachs or squatting behind trees. The Vietnamese weapons they had stolen gripped tightly in their hands.

"No." Ichigo breathed, he could taste his own blood, smell the air thick with it, hear the breaths from the filthy Viet Cong. He could see their positions in his mind. He could feel the ground beneath him and anything that was on it. His fingers meshed with the soft mud, soaked with the blood of his pot luck soldiers. He opened his eyes again, looking around them. His name called again from the man on the other side of the hillock. He could hear his own breathing. It was almost like being outside of his own body. Everything was ghostly slow, out of focus, slowly slipping away.

Rain drizzled on the group, this mismatched group of POWs that had broken their own way out of the Viet Cong's hold. As the highest ranked commissioned officer he was required to be their commander, and he stood by his troops. Ichigo closed his eyes, raised his weapon and dove out from behind the hill towards Hound's body, he slammed into the ground as gunfire littered the area. Hound smiled shakily up at him, the wound in his side bleeding. Ichigo closed his eyes in relief, placing his forehead against the other marine's "Semper fi…(1)" he whispered.

Click. The wrenching of a grenade pin, an explosion. His eyes snapped open.

Sweat soaked his body, his eyes staring at the ceiling fan of his own home. His breaths shuddered through his body, again, that phantasmal feeling. Everything in the room spun, voices became muffled, the world itself melted. A hand brought him back from his past and he started, grabbing the hand reflexively. Rukia gasped and he stared, for only a moment, into Hound's eyes again before they faded away into his wife's. Rukia stroked the side of his face tenderly.

"Ichigo…" her voice was calm and he drew her into his arms, a hand at the back of her head as she buried her face into the side of his neck. He kissed the top of her face, until he was satisfied that he was really in her arms. Their lips met, he kept his eyes open, as if the demons from his nightmares were just around the corner.

Her fingers drizzled down his neck and powerful chest, down his abdomen to trace the line of his hip. Her small hand rested itself on his hip and he closed his eyes under her touch. In her arms, nothing could touch him.

"There are no Charlie(2) in America." She whispered in his ear.

"India Kilo November Oscar Whiskey(3)." He answered, his eyes still closed.

"India Lima Oscar Victor Echo Yankee Oscar Uniform…(4)" His lips brushed her eyelid as she spoke. He trailed down her face to meet her lips again, the sweet taste of freedom. She relished in the feeling of his tongue sliding against hers. His hand sliding down her neck, across her breast, down her waist, his breath on her neck.

"I'm sorry…" he muttered against her skin, pressing his cheek to her collarbone. She shook her head. His bush tan was darker than it had been. His upper body so dark it was nearing coal black.

"Ichigo… you can't control it…" she fingered the now brown and yellow piece of lace he wore around his wrist. She smiled. It had been there for nearly six years. She had given it to him just before he had graduated from West Point.

"I've always kept it…" he whispered. "I took it off just before I was caught. They took it but the General kept it… so when… I… killed him I took it back…" He touched his fingers to hers as well as the lace.

"It's stained like blood…" her eyes dimmed. She had more where that piece had come from… but she hoped that she would never have to give him another.

"I know… I'll have to get a new one huh?" Ichigo said thoughtfully, toying with the piece of cloth tied around his wrist. She blinked and then stared at him.

"No Ichigo…" Rukia looked up at him and he continued to play with the lace.

"It's my duty Rukia…" He bit down, his jaw visibly clenching.

"No… Ichigo…" he glanced up, but only for a moment only to return his eyes to the lace at his wrist. She rested her hand on his chest and he turned away, standing up off the bed. Her fingers slid down the rivers of muscle in his back across his firm buttocks, her fingers hiccupped on his skin before landing on his hand. He gripped her hand tenderly for a moment before letting go. He watched out of the corner of his eye, his shoulder hiding her body from view. Her eyes were hidden beneath her bangs, her long black hair draped over her shoulders. He turned his back, closing his eyes as he slipped his feet into the faded jeans on the floor. He pulled them up, buttoned them, and walked out the bedroom door.

Rukia pressed her face into the pillow, her tears cascading down her cheeks and suddenly she felt as though she could see him, standing out in the pouring rain, letting the water run down his chiseled upper body, drenching his dreams, soaking his sorrow, whetting his wishes.

Ichigo breathed in deeply. The dirt smelled differently here. It smelled like moisture, like freshly cut grass, like decomposing flowers. The air ran differently through his body, like a sweet song in his mind, drinking it in like a shot of whiskey he took in deep breaths to calm his shaking body. To calm the pain that raged in his heart. His fingers traced the long scar extending from his upper right arm to his lower, in a long diagonal scar that was only complete when he placed his hand on his neck, squeezing his bicep and forearm together. It was a shiny white scar that was new on his body. He slid a finger along it and its birth returned to his mind.

It burned. The bayonet of a Viet Cong weapon. The man was young, around 19. Ichigo had swung around, shooting him in the face. Ichigo watched, hearing only his own blood pumping in his veins, only the heavy breathing of his own lungs as the man's forehead was torn from his body. But he didn't have time to contemplate the vastness of death then. He didn't have the time to worry about the thick, mucus like blood collecting on his arm and dripping on his hand. The slick liquid dripped onto Hound's shoulder as he grabbed him, dragging him back behind the hill as the gun fire continued.

"Daddy…" His eyes slammed open and he returned to reality again. A small hand slipped into his and he looked down. Arisu stood next to him, her single pig tail messy from sleep, her velveteen rabbit she had snuck from his chest in the attic under her other arm, her little white night dress soaked around the shoulders. He delicately wrapped his much bigger hand around hers and she dragged herself under his arm, pressing her head to his hip. "Why are you out here in da wain?" Her big blue eyes stared up at him. Just like her mother. He cursed inwardly.

"I'm thinking…" he replied, keeping his eyes fixed on her. This was foreign to him. All he had ever known was war. All he had known was running. All he had known was keeping himself and his platoon alive… this little girl, this concept that he had created her, the concept that she was his offspring was baffling.

"What are you tinking about?" She blinked and he chuckled. She couldn't say th.

"Daddy's thinking about what we're going to do tomorrow…" he knelt down on one knee in front of her. He had felt so disconnected from her since he had met her. He felt as though… she wasn't his… though the signs that she was were fairly obvious… he felt as though he had had no part in her creation.

"Daddy's wying…" She said bluntly, her cerulean eyes looking deep into his soul. "Daddy's sad. Awisu can see it in his eyes… he's hurting… hewe…" she touched her hand to his heart and his lips parted, near shock, his eyes darkening. She knew him… too well. "Will Daddy teww Awisu what's wong?" She sat down in the grass, the rain still pouring down around them. Ichigo stared at her. It was too much for her to know. He swallowed. Too much for her to understand.

"Arisu…" he choked and she patted the grass.

"Sit down Daddy…" she demanded and he automatically followed the command. He then thought it ridiculous that his body had obeyed an order from a three year old but dismissed it upon further inspection.

"Daddy was in a war…" he watched her. She seemed to take in his story like a sponge. What seemed an hour later she was sitting in his lap in the rain, listening to him talk about the things he had done in Viet Nam. "There was this one guy we called Hound…" Ichigo laughed, he had thought up all of the good times, Hound was one of them.

"Hound? Like Lizzie's doggy?" Arisu blinked.

"Lizzie?" Ichigo's quizzical look reached his daughter.

"A fwend of mine fwom day cawe." She grinned. He shook his head with a smile.

"I guess… he was called that because everyone in his squad told him that he looked like a droopy eyed Basset Hound." Ichigo chuckled and his daughter giggled, yawning at the same time. He smiled again, suddenly his heart swelled for his daughter and wife. Suddenly his indifference melted. He realized that they were there to listen, even this little 3 year old girl was willing to sit in his lap and let him talk his heart out, all the while soaking up his every word. Suddenly all the color flooded back into his world. He picked her up, cradling the soaked child in his muscular arms, she rested her head against his chest as he walked into the house.

"Daddy… I'm all wet…" she mumbled and he nodded, carrying her into her bedroom. He set her down in the middle of her pink and white room and stripped her night gown off, his fingers fumbling slightly with the tiny little buttons.

"Fcking women and their fcking contraptions…" he muttered under his breath as he tossed her night gown over his shoulder and wrapped a fluffy towel around her, rubbing her hair of. "I'm going to take Babbi and dry him for you okay?" Ichigo mumbled to her, rubbing her briskly but gently. She nodded as he scrubbed her hair. From her drawer he produced a soft long sleeved pink night gown and pulled it over her head and slipped her arms through the holes. She nodded off as he lifted her up and tucked her into the bed.

"Night Daddy…" she mumbled and he smiled. "I love you…" his eyes dimmed as he saw the faint light from the crack in the door, and the figure that stood in it.

"I love you too baby…" Ichigo kissed her forehead as her tiny arms wrapped around his neck. He gave her one last hug before turning to his wife. She was looking at him curiously, she had never seen him act that way with their daughter since he had returned. Her eyes met his and she recognized the look he gave her.

Her back slammed against the wall of their bed room, his lips setting her body on fire, his hips grinding against hers so hard she thought she would break under the pressure. Her hands gripped for something on the wall, finding nothing her nails dug into the wood of the sideboard. Her gasps for air sent his already frenzied mind into overdrive as their bodies sang in harmony. His hands raked her body, her skin trembling under his touch as he carried her through the lands of nirvana into just tireless carnal desire into furious lust, jealous of the other for reaping more than the other.

Her nails dragged down his back, her air only entering her body through the quick gasps through her teeth, and the heavy moans that shook her entire body. Their lips clashed, fighting for dominance, their tongues tangling together furiously.

It was the first time in 4 years that he had felt so passionate about anything but his own safety. It was the first time since he had returned that he wanted to prove to her how much he had missed her, how much she meant to him, how much she had done for him since he had left. Tears mingled with their sweat as her hands gripped his face, their bodies rocking together.

"I love you…" Ichigo choked, suddenly the scent that he hadn't recognized when she had met him at the airport, the scent that she had carried with her when he had seen her in Viet Nam. The scent she had carried even in Okinawa came to him, it was a beautiful scent.

Of flowers and perfume and freshly cut grass. Of herbs and gardens and hot dogs. Of baseball stadiums and fresh tilled earth. Of corn bread and fried chicken. Of freshly baked cookies and coffee. Of wet roses in a bride's bouquet… of bittersweet lovemaking… and of a comfortable seat on the carpet in front of a fire to the side of an evergreen tree draped in popcorn strings and gingerbread men while snow fell slowly outside the window, collecting on the ground, soon to be trampled in by little kids bundled like penguins in their winter coats…

The scent of American Soil.

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For those of you who are not familiar with phonetics and commons terms used in the military during this time… here ya go:

(1) **Semper****Fidelis**: marine motto… means always faithful in Latin

(2) **Charlie:** Viet Cong is the term for the Vietnamese guerillas that worked in harmony with the NVA (Army of Viet Nam) in phonetics they would call them Victor Charlie or VC sometimes shortened by the men on the ground as Charlie

(3) **India Kilo November Oscar Whiskey**: in plain English this means I KNOW spelled out in phonetics. Being that Ichigo had just come out of a state of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) he was still in his Viet Nam mindset

(4) **India Lima Oscar Victor Echo Yankee Oscar Uniform**…: I LOVE YOU spelled out in phonetics… Rukia's way of reminding him that she is there…

**COMPLETE LIST OF PHONETICS:**

Phonetics are used to replace whole words. The first letter of the word represents the letter it is used for… they will appear in alphabetical order:

Alfa

Bravo

Charlie

Delta

Echo

Foxtrot

Golf

Hotel

India

Juliett

Kilo

Lima

Mike

November

Oscar

Papa

Quebec

Romeo

Sierra

Tango

Uniform

Victor

Whiskey

X-ray

Yankee

Zulu

Hello… I really REALLY liked that chapter… sorry it was so damn long… read and review or I shall bring back public hangings…

I love you all

Shalan


	6. American Honor

**Chapter: **American Honor (Veteran's Day Special)

**Shalan's Barf: **I know this is a little early for veteran's day but my dad's leaving tomorrow so I wanted to get it posted before Sunday…

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Smoke filled the room and Ichigo coughed lightly, reaching for the cigarette package in his front pocket. He tapped one out and bit down on it gently before lifting a hand and lighting it.

"So I tells him, I says 'You can't pull that tab with your teeth…' and he says to me 'yes I can I seen John Wayne do it!'" Kisuke roared with laughter. "Then you know what he goes and does next? He tries to pull the pin with his teeth!" Ichigo sniggered. "Boy splintered his two front teeth!" Kisuke nearly fell out of his chair and the table roared with laughter.

Byakuya looked around the room at the other people in the bar. Several men were giving them dirty looks and a few were muttering among themselves, shooting the vets dirty looks. He caught Ichigo's eye who nodded and leaned back in his chair, blowing a puff of smoke into the air. It was the first time in quite a while that he had been able to visit with his friend since his return to the United States. It was also one of his first times being out and about after completing his physical therapy. He felt much better being back in shape, his muscles filled out again.

"They're giving us looks…" Uryu grumbled into his beer bottle before taking a swing. Ichigo pursed his lips. The Marine simply took another draw on his cigarette.

"Ignore them, if they don't start anything we won't have to finish it… remember… we're Marines…" Ichigo warned softly and the other three, though riled slightly, fell quiet. Ichigo's time spent in a POW camp had given him something of a reverence from his fellow Marines.

"Yeah but we also have a right to teach them not to be so damn disrespectful…" Kisuke gripped his glass tightly and Ichigo lifted his eyes to meet his blonde friend's.

"If we start it we'll get court marshaled… if they start it and or threaten us we'll just be defending honor." Just as Ichigo said that a young man sauntered up to them.

"Are you that leatherneck that got 'imself caught over in Viet Nam?" He cackled and Ichigo simply looked at him out of one eye over his shoulder.

"I didn't get myself caught… but yeah…" Ichigo lit another cigarette, stubbing out the old one. "Cigarette?" He offered the package to the man. Several other men joined the young man and Kisuke gripped his glass.

"Boy you must be stupid! If I was over there I wouldn't ever let myself get caught… not that we should be there in the first place… 'cause the war's stupid…" Another chimed and Ichigo simply closed his eyes and drew in on his cigarette. Uryu fisted his hands under the table and Byakuya leaned forward on the table.

"Yeah! I mean you guys don't do anything over there anyways… ya'll just sit around all day and sleep with Vietnamese whores…" One man drank from a beer bottle. Ichigo continued to ignore them and flicked the butt of his cigarette lightly, tapping the glowing tip into the ashtray. "And I even heard that you all are just leaving people out there to die… you all are just letting Americans die over there for no reason…" At that Ichigo opened his eyes and Byakuya's jaw clenched.

"I mean it's not like the Army has any honor anymore… the only reason we're over there is because Vietnamese girls are easy… you Army people disgust me…" The first spat on Ichigo's shirt, that's what started it, Kisuke stood up so quickly his chair flew out from behind him.

"I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT HE WAS SAVING ONE OF OUR COMRADE'S LIVES WHEN HE WAS CAPTURED! THEN WHEN HE WAS INJURED AND INCAPACITATED HE TOOK CONTROL OF A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SITUATION AND LED AN ENTIRE BRIGADE OF POWS TO SAFETY!" Kisuke threw his beer bottle at the boy and it burst on the floor. Ichigo stood up calmly and stubbed out his cigarette.

"Yeah you say that… but look he won't even say anything to defend himself… what? Did the Vietnamese turn you into a pussy?" Another heckler cackled from the back. Byakuya stood up as Uryu did.

"Actually I'm a Marine… and you want a reason for why we're over there?" Ichigo kept his back to the group. Uryu looked at him curiously. "It's for the little girl that I saw lying dead in a pool of her own blood, the lower half of her body blown off… it's for the woman whose husbands have been Shanghaied into the National Vietnamese Army. It's for the young men who try desperately to raise their family according to their own religions… not according to their country's. It's so that my wife and daughter can sleep safely in their beds at night when I'm dead and gone. It's so that your children can continue to live under the American flag with pride… so don't you tell me…" his powerful hand gripped the first heckler by the front of his shirt, yanking him up so that their faces were barely inches apart. "That I'm over in Viet Nam doing nothing…" His breath steamed across the other man's face. The boy shuddered lightly at the Marine's sheer strength. "Because I suffered worse than you ever will in your life… so that you wouldn't…" He growled.

"You're lying!" Another shouted from the back.

"And to come back from Viet Nam… and to be called a leatherneck, to be spat on, to be called a FUCKING LIAR!" Ichigo threw the first boy across the room and he hit the bar, hard. "Really kinda gets me steamed… What makes any of you think that you have any idea as to what goes on over there? You watch the news? You read the papers? YOU HAVEN'T BEEN THERE! MY GIRLFRIEND HAS BEEN WAITING FOR ME TO COME BACK FOR THREE YEARS! HAVE YOUR FAMILIES BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO COME HOME? HAVE YOUR FAMILIES EVER THOUGHT THAT YOU MAY NOT COME BACK ALIVE?" Tears pricked at the corner of the Marine's eyes, his anger flaring through his muscles and jaw. He reached out to punch one of the men but Kisuke grabbed his wrist.

"Calm down Kurosaki…" Byakuya warned and Ichigo jerked only to have Uryu hook his arms beneath the Marine's. Ichigo struggled, trying to get at the other men.

"Kurosaki… You're Japanese? They let Japs into the military? To go into the war in another Asian country? No wonder there's so many traitors over there." That was the final straw. The other three let the enraged Marine loose on the speaker.

&&&

She rested her forehead against her hands, biting her bottom lip harshly. The door opened and she jerked her head up, whirling her upper body around to face the person walking in. "Ichigo…" his name rolled off her lips and she ran towards him, only to halt a few feet away from him. He smelled like smoke… and blood. Crimson liquid ran down his chin from the corner of his mouth and a swollen purple and black bruise surrounded his left eye. Two fingers on his right hand were swollen as well and appeared to be broken. "What in the hell happened?" Rukia reached up and placed a hand on the side of his face.

"Got into a fight… Going to bed…" he muttered and walked past her. She suddenly felt the rift grow between them again as he turned down the hallway. Her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head, closing her eyes.

"Are you going back?" The question that had been hanging over the household for nearly six months finally emptied from her mouth. Ichigo stopped dead in his tracks and for a moment there was complete silence, except for the low rolling thunder in the distance. She felt her body relax slightly, staring at him as he turned back to her. "Oh god…" She covered her mouth and he bowed his head. "Oh Jesus Christ Ichigo…" Tears dripped down her cheeks and she felt fear shake her body. "No…" she shook her head. He looked down then off to the side. "NO!" She dropped to her knees and he continued to stare into space. He closed his eyes.

"I don't belong here Rukia…" He felt her eyes upon him and opened his. "I just can't stay here when I know that there are men overseas dying for my country… when I know that I can still fight for the people who can't…" Ichigo told her and she nodded, sobs wracking her body. She did little to hide the redness in her face, her hands pressed to her head. Her mouth was open in a silent, painful scream, her tears soaking her skin and her nightgown. Her breathing came in painful short gasps, shaky and haggard. Saliva hung in strings from her mouth, getting caught on her skin as she sobbed.

She buried her face into his chest, gripping his shirt with her hands, as his arms wrapped around her tightly, pulling her into his body. He pressed his face into her hair, letting her cry into his shoulder. She moved her head slightly and let the bridge of her nose press against his neck as she cried.

"But before I go…" he whispered in her ear. "Will you marry me Rukia?" Her tears subsided and she drew away from him, staring into his eyes. "I don't think I could go back over if I didn't know you were mine…" he placed a hand on the side of her face as tear-filled cerulean burnt into deep ocher. She choked on her own tongue as his fingers slid the most beautiful ring she had ever seen onto her finger. It was silver, with a simple square diamond set in it. "Sorry it's not as big as you deserve… I'm not a rich man… but it's all I can offer you besides myself." A fresh wave of tears reached her eyes and he looked down. "You deserve more than I can give you…" He sounded almost ashamed.

"You give me more than I deserve…" she whispered before closing the distance between their lips. She tasted coppery blood and tobacco at first but then it faded into the familiar taste of his mouth as the kiss deepened. His fingers tangled through her hair as her hands gripped his face. Her hands slid through the drying blood on his cheek and through a single line of salty cold tears. He was crying. Not something that happened often… but he was crying.

&&&

"Major Ichigo Kurosaki, thank you for your service to the United States Marines and to the United States of America. In honor of your bravery and actions above and beyond the call of duty I hereby bestow upon you the Congressional Medal of Honor…" President Lyndon B. Johnson clasped the blue and white ribbon around the orange haired young man's neck as cameras flashed. He smiled as he shook the president's hand, squeezing gently. Almost a year and a half since he had returned the medal was placed around his neck… a medal that he didn't think he deserved.

He sat on the bed in their hotel room, his legs crossed Indian style. His bare upper body shone in the dim light, his boxers pulled down slightly. A pair of hands slid up his arms and around his shoulders. "Congratulations baby…" she whispered and he looked up at her. He set the ribbon and medal on the bedside table and pressed a hand to her swollen belly.

"You are so beautiful…" his voice cracked slightly as he spoke and she smiled, pressing their foreheads together.

"I'm pregnant… not beautiful…" she chuckled and he kissed her lips tenderly.

"The fact that you're pregnant makes you even more radiant than you usually are…" His hand slid along the stretched skin tenderly beneath her shirt.

"You want some toast with that ham?" She whispered before their lips met again. His hands held her head as she knelt on the bed between his legs.

"Can you butter it and feed it to me?" He replied teasingly before she pushed him back onto the bed.

"Maybe…" their lips met again, her hands sliding up his chest and shoulders.

Much later into the evening he buried his face into the back of her neck, her hair twisted and pulled out of his way. She giggled quietly as he planted a line of kisses down her skin, his hands curved against her stomach. Their daughter slept soundly in the other room of the suite.

"I leave in three months…" He whispered in her ear and she nodded, gripping his hands with hers. "And I'll come back to you I promise…" her grip tightened and he bowed his head into her neck. She pulled his hand to her lips and kissed his skin lovingly.

"I believe you Ichigo Kurosaki… but if you don't I'll personally drag your dead body back and then blow it up in our backyard…" she joked.

"I love you…" He muttered and she smiled.

"I love you too… semper fi…" she whispered before closing her eyes… simply waiting to go to sleep.

&&&

This is dedicated to the men and woman of the armed forces who are no longer in service the men and women who are still in service… as well as the men and women who never returned… THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

Shalan


End file.
